Central African Republic, 2001 — rebel coup attempt

Event Summary

On 28 May 2001 a coup was attempted in the Central African Republic against President Ange-Felix Patasse, touching off days of heavy fighting in the capital Bangui and marking the beginning of the end for his troubled rule. The CAR, nominally democratic but chronically unstable, had been racked through the 1990s by army mutinies over unpaid wages and by bitter ethnic and regional polarization between Patasse's northern base and the southern riverine communities. The May 2001 coup attempt, which the government blamed on the former president General Andre Kolingba, unleashed intense clashes between rebellious soldiers and forces loyal to Patasse, who survived only with the help of foreign backers, including Libyan troops and fighters of the Congolese rebel leader Jean Pierre Bemba brought in to prop him up.

Patasse also accused his former army chief of staff, General Francois Bozize, of complicity; Bozize fled to Chad and began organizing a rebellion from abroad. Patasse weathered this challenge but was fatally weakened. Bozize's forces attacked Bangui again in 2002 and finally overthrew Patasse in March 2003 while the president was out of the country.